Bill Leisner

When I woke up this morning I was at about 5,000 words on "Higher Honor" (a behind-deadline project that will top off at about 10k).

Wrote 3,042 words. Had lunch. Read what I'd written. Realized I'd lost the story completely playing with nice subplots and clever character explorations that were not true to the core and purpose of the story. Deleted the lot. Went back to writing.
I'm now at 5,800 words.
These are better words, but I really had planned on finishing this joker today.

Taking a break to go shop for stuff to cook for dinner.
I'll write some more tonight.

http://www.bobgreenberger.com/index.php/2009/11/08/1087/

http://www.bobgreenberger.com/?p=1087

I wasn’t sure what to expect from King Con when I was invited to attend, but it came as a most welcome distraction after a rough political week. Held at the Brooklyn Lyceum, it most reminded me of the smaller NYC cons of the 1970s although the dealers’ tables were all replaced with artists’ tables. There may have been one pure retailer in attendance. Instead, the tables were filled with people who work for DC, Marvel, or smaller houses and it was a most collegial atmosphere.

The Lyceum is a rundown structure that I am told hosts Opera performances in the area occupied by writers and artists while the panel floor was normally used for weight lifting. While downstairs was crowded and warm as a result, the spacious panel floor was unheated and many panelists and attendees wore coats to keep warm.

I arrived just before Noon yesterday and immediately caught up with Matt Manning, my co-author of The Batman Vault. I spent the next hour or so wandering the small space and checking out the wares. There was quite a lot on display, much of which I was unfamiliar with so started chatting up authors and artists such as Charles Soule, who wrote Strongman, a well reviewed graphic novel from Slave Labor Graphics.

I headed upstairs and caught most of the panel dedicated to Act-i-Vate, a collective website. The 11 panelists discussed their strips and how they got involved, and how this medium allowed them to find print homes for their projects. They also talked about their first print anthology, The Act-i-Vate Primer, now on sale, and I was fascinated by all the people, most of whom I was unfamiliar with. The one I did know, was Dean Haspiel, who was a major help with The Howard Chaykin Retrospective.

Afterwards, there was a panel dedicated to Harvey Pekar and the new Pekar Project, which sounded like a tremendous way to expand Harvey’s unique brand.

While waiting to begin the Batman panel, I was “backstage” and caught up with the fabulous Christine Norrie, my former assistant at DC, and a pretty amazing artist. I also had a few minutes with my Iron Man editor Steve Saffel, which is always a treat.

The Batman Panel was moderated by another old friend, historian Peter Sanderson, and he came very prepared with excellent questions which had Matt, I, and the legendary Denny O’Neil riffing on themes and history that we may not have discussed otherwise.  Overall, it was an excellent discussion but you can tell the audience the con attracted by the fact that the previous two panels were filled to overflowing while our crowd was maybe two-thirds the size.

I was greeted afterwards by my former Weekly World News art director Kristine Schmidt so we had time to play catch up before a final turn around the crowded dealers’ floor.

Driving home, I felt good to be out and about amongst peers and fans. It was a welcome distraction and a good experience, making me think back to the days when pros and fans could more easily congregate and chat at the shows before they evolved into full-blown entertainment extravaganzas.

netgirl_y2k and I are both avoiding what we should be writing; however, she's doing so much more productively with the extremely silly Sarah Jane Adventures story Put Down Your Pencils And Get Ready For The Practical Exam, wherein Ten decides to reward Clyde and Rani for doing well on their exams.

“Hey!” said Rani, once the Doctor had handed over her exam results, “Someone's opened this already.”

“And someone,” Clyde added, “has steamed mine open with a kettle and then tried to glue the envelope shut.”

“The Royal Mail must've been taken over by aliens,” the Doctor said, innocently. “I'll look into it.”

Mild spoiler for Prisoner of the Judoon.

First thoughts:

Great place, free parking and of course shitty parking.

Welcome to Newport.

Literary scholar, Karl Kroeber passed away this morning. He was 82.  Best known for his work with Native American literature, he was also English and comparative literature at Columbia University.  Our condolences go out to his sister, Ursula K. Le Guin, and to all his family and friends.

Mirrored from SFWA | Comment at SFWA

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Copyright, literally, is “the right to copy.” It guarantees the authors of creative works–including books, artworks, films, recordings, photographs–the exclusive right for a set period of time to allow other people to copy and distribute the work, by whatever means and in whatever media currently exist. It also prohibits copying and distributing without the author’s permission. You own copyright by law, automatically, as soon your work is fixed in tangible form–i.e., the minute you write down the words.

Contained within copyright is the entire bundle of rights that an author can grant to others or utilize him/herself. For book authors, this includes the right to publish in book or other form, to make translations and audio recordings and films, to create serializations or abridgements or derivative works…the list goes on, and continues to expand as technology makes different forms of publication and distribution possible.

When you sign a publishing contract, you are granting the publisher permission to exploit (i.e., to publish and distribute for profit) some or all of your rights for a defined period of time. Because you own the copyright, granting rights doesn’t mean you lose or abandon those rights–merely that you authorize someone else to use them for a while, either exclusively (no one else can use them at the same time) or nonexclusively (you can also grant them to others). Eventually, once the contract term has expired or the book has ceased to sell in significant numbers, the publisher will cease publication and relinquish its claim on your rights. This is known as rights reversion. Sometimes reversion is automatic (as in a fixed-term contract); sometimes you must request reversion after the book has been declared out of print (as in a life-of-copyright contract). Once your rights have reverted, you are free to re-sell them if you can or use them yourself, as you choose.

For many readers of this blog, the above will seem pretty elementary. But confusion between rights and copyright is not unusual–not just among authors (one common misplaced fear, that granting rights to a publisher means you lose them forever, is often used as a justification for self-publishing), but among inexperienced publishers. If I had a dollar for every small press contract I’ve seen that hopelessly conflates rights and copyright (for instance, requiring writers to grant copyright, but then reserving a variety of subrights to the author), I could take my husband Rob out to a very fancy dinner.

Some suggestions to untangle the confusion and protect yourself:

- First and foremost, understand copyright and the rights it gives you. The US Copyright Office, the UK Intellectual Property Office, and the Australian Copyright Council all offer information. The more you know, the more likely it is that you’ll recognize bad contract clauses when you run across them.

- Except in specific circumstances, such as doing work-for-hire, don’t give away your copyright, not even temporarily. Inexperienced publishers sometimes ask for this, believing they need it to properly exploit authors’ rights. They don’t–and if things go wrong, it can work out very badly for you.

- You don’t necessarily need to be afraid of life-of-copyright contracts. In a fixed-term contract, you grant rights for a defined amount of time–say, three years. In a life-of-copyright contract, you grant rights for the duration of copyright (currently, in the USA and most of Europe, your lifetime plus 70 years). New authors often find life-of-copyright contracts very scary–but they’re standard in commercial publishing, and many smaller presses have them also. They are not intended to allow the publisher to hold your rights until 70 years after your death, but rather to create an open-ended situation in which the publisher can keep your book in print for as long as it continues to sell.

Of course, you need to evaluate the situation. For a new small publisher, life-of-copyright might not be such a great idea, since the failure rate for new publishers is very high. A fixed-term contract might be better, as it would at least ensure you got your rights back eventually, even if the publisher didn’t bother to return them before disappearing. And a life-of-copyright grant term must be balanced by a rights reversion clause (see below).

- Speaking of grant terms, make sure there is one. Whether it’s three years or life-of-copyright, your contract should state the term for which rights are being granted. I’ve seen small publishers’ contracts that lack this important detail.

- Make sure your contract includes some provision for rights reversion. While you want to grant rights to a publisher that will properly exploit them, you also want eventually to get your rights back. When and how this happens should be clearly spelled out in your contract.

A time-limited contract is one way to ensure reversion–but beware of automatic renewal clauses that make it difficult for you to terminate, or that rely on you remembering to send the publisher notice before the renewal date and thus can easily be forgotten. Beware also of excessive grant terms–for instance, the contract of one well-known author mill extends for seven years, which is longer than many commercially-published books remain in print. For a smaller publisher, three to five years, with the possibility of renewal if both parties agree, is probably the most you want to consider.

For life-of-copyright contracts, there should be a rights reversion clause detailing when the work will go out of print (ideally, this should be tied to minimum sales or royalty levels, rather than mere availability for sale, so that the publisher can’t hang on to your rights if your book is selling just a couple of copies a year) and what steps you can take to demand that the publisher return your rights (usually, a letter asking the publisher either to republish or return rights, and providing a timeframe for the publisher to respond). Never sign a life-of-copyright contract that does not include such a clause. Yes, they exist; I’ve seen them.

Also look for a clause requiring the publisher to publish within a specific period of time (say, 12-24 months), or else return rights. This will prevent the publisher from sitting on your book without ever publishing it, or from pushing the publishing date back indefinitely due to incompetence or malice.

- Last but very definitely not least, never rely on a publisher’s verbal assurances. A confused or devious publisher may assure you that, even though its contract requires you to give up copyright, “you aren’t really losing your copyright, because we’ll give it back later on.” Or, even though its life-of-copyright contract doesn’t include a reversion clause, “you don’t need to worry, because we never hold on to rights forever.” Maybe the publisher means it, maybe it doesn’t–but do you really want to risk signing with a publisher whose contract doesn’t match its promises? Along with Yog’s Law, a principle by which authors should always abide is this: If it’s not in writing, it doesn’t exist.

For more on copyright, including the reasons why you don’t need to register copyright for unpublished work and a discussion of several common copyright myths, see the Copyright page of the Writer Beware website.

Mirrored from SFWA | Comment at SFWA

Bruce Wayne, better known to millions of comics fans as Batman, is dead.

Many months ago, in an effort to drive to defeat Batman, the Devil himself, in the person of Dr. Hurt, attempted to drive Batman insane. However, Batman had the greatest plan ever, because Batman plans for everything — he had created a back-up Batman persona, an ultra-violent Batman amped up to 10. And then Batman kicked the Devil’s ass, but in the process, the world believed that Batman was gone.

(I should note that the fundamental difference between Batman and Spider-Man is this. When confronted with the Devil, Batman kicks his ass. When confronted with the Devil, Spider-Man sells his marriage in exchange for whiny emo-ness.)

However, Batman was not gone. He had gone underground, and then the events of Final Crisis happened. Darkseid conquered Earth and turned it into a literal Hell.

And, because Batman plans for everything, Batman had planned for this.

Batman shot Darkseid and killed him.

But Darkseid unleashed his Omega Beams on Batman before he died and fried his body, leaving a bleached skeleton inside the Bat-costume.

The world believes that Batman is dead, and former Robin and Nightwing Dick Grayson has taken up the mantle of the Bat again, as he did in the aftermath of KnightsEnd fifteen years ago.

However, Tim Drake, another former Robin, does not believe that Batman is dead. And as he travels the world, he is uncovering evidence that Bruce Wayne has been present throughout a long period of human history. Tens of thousands of years of human history.

Because, somehow, the Omega Beams didn’t kill Batman, despite the body that Superman cradled in his arms. Nor did the Omega Beams trap Batman into the world of the Omega Sanction, though Neil Gaiman’s “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” may indicate that if Batman was trapped in the Omega Sanction, he worked out how to escape it.

Because, let’s be honest. If Batman can outthink the Devil, Batman can outthink Darkseid. Easily. It’s just that simple.

But how can Batman be present in human history, for thousands of years?

I’ve got it.

He’s a disembodied spirit!

The spirit of Batman refuses to die. Refuses to die!

Much like Ra’s al-Ghul’s spirit refused to die, come to think of it…

Where I think the story is going is this. In The Resurrection of Ra’s al-Ghul, the world believed that the Demon’s Head was dead, but evidence began to surface that he wasn’t. The League of Assassins tried to kidnap Damien, the son of Bruce Wayne of Talia al-Ghul. The reason, as we learn, is that Ra’s al-Ghul was alive, sort of. He was a spirit, and he could take over a body, but unless the body was part of his bloodline the body would decay quickly and his spirit would have to move to another body. Damien, because he is Ra’s al-Ghul’s grandson, could provide Ra’s with a stable body.

Batman, Nightwing, and Robin are able to save Damien, and Ra’s al-Ghul takes over a different body, that of a heretofore unknown son, which is probably why when we’ve seen Ra’s since (in the pages of Nightwing and Red Robin) he’s looked almost exactly as he had before.

You may be able to see where I’m going with this.

The disembodied spirit of Bruce Wayne will occupy Damien Wayne’s body.

Tim Drake will, in some fashion, find the spirit of Bruce Wayne. And to make Bruce Wayne live again, Damien, who has been shown will do anything for his father, will sacrifice himself so that Bruce’s spirit can have a vessel.

Thus, Dick Grayson remains as Batman. And now Bruce Wayne will be the sixth Robin. Or maybe still the fifth, since it’s Damien’s body, after all.

Which means that the future Damien Batman we see in Batman #666 isn’t really Damien. It’s actually Bruce.

There it is. My crackpot theory on the search for Bruce Wayne and the return of the original Batman.

Originally posted at allyngibson.net. Cross-posted to LiveJournal.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/xVPocs6KRXA/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=204017

An interesting interactive map from the folks at The Washington Post showing the shifts in USofA politics from 1960 to 2008.

My camera was flashing low battery at me yesterday, so I didn't get nearly as many pics as I'd like, but here are the ones I did manage!

1- Maria Geraci, Dara Edmondson and Louise M. Gouge
2- me and Maria, a Knight Agency author (BUNCO BABES GONE WILD! etc.)
3- Linnea Sinclair
4- Pamela LaBud and Gennita Low

As a bonus, I got to reconnect with a friend of mine I haven't seen since college, who now lives about an hour and a half away from me (and far less than that from the signing)!  It was as though no time had passed at all.  I look forward to getting out here way again so we can chat more under less chaotic circumstances.

I have to admit my parents never took us on a Sunday Drive unlike Paul C's horrendous experiences with his parents dragging him all over the place when he was young.

I finished up half of my Design 3 homework the rest of it will be done once I get home tonight from the Write In at Empire Tea and Coffee in Newport.

I foresee this week being bad and not because of Modern Warfare 2 coming out Tuesday, it's mostly due to Veterans Day in the middle of the week and the fact I have a make up class on Friday. Depending on how much work I need to get done me going to the Mid-Term Write may not happen.

The good news about this week is I'm going to Star Wars in Concert at the Dunk on Wednesday. :)

Time to go warm up the Tom Tom and roll...

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/11/08/attention-portuguese-speakers/

http://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=9015

I have been reading some Old French texts.

And by reading them, I mean that I am looking at them, recognizing a few words that resemble modern French, and wondering what the hell the rest is.

In addition, Old French doesn't use any sort of modern punctuation, and sentences aren't organized into logical paragraphs.

Yay!

...and any other Rush fans on my f-list, MusicRadar.com recently posted an extract from the blog of drummer Neil Peart, discussing what's next for the band:

MusicRadar.com: Neil Peart says Rush are poised for "reinvention"

The complete blog entry, which makes for some damn fine reading on a Sunday morning, can be found here: NeilPeart.net: November 2009 - Autumn Serenade.

Whatever you guys decide, I'll be here.

I was going to do a quick update on the book signing yesterday, but jpsorrow got to it first.

And then pbray weighed in.

I'm not sure I'd call it a disaster, as such -- we sold a fair number of books, even if they did have to be put aside for when the power came back on, and we did hand out a number of cards and whatnot to people who were interested, and we did make nice with the fabulous-under-stress bookstore staff, but...

Yeah, there have been better signings. But at least we weren't sitting there. In the dark. Alone.

[in fact, we still managed to have a bit of fun. as we do.]

So if you're in the NJ area and want to reward a store and staff that really did their best under impossible conditions, head over to the Ledgewood B&N on route 10 and buy a book from them. Maybe one of ours (we left signed stock there) maybe someone else's. But tell em we sent you, and why.

(but you might want to avoid the Outback)

 So, we gathered online last night and not only was it the first time playing in some time, it was also the first time the whole gang played together in some time.  Skype was a little futzy, but I think that had to do with both myself and themadadmin  being on wireless connections.  There weren't that many encounters, one in fact, but it proved difficult as the party was already injured.  Five giant ants and four aspis drones from the Slave Lords series made them retreat back to a nearby town.  I'm moving the plot along by drugging them and having them wake up in the Slave Lords' dungeons where they'll have to fight their way out.

I hit highs and lows when it comes to my enthusiasm with the campaign.  Moving this along has got me motivated again. 

Well, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops seems to have had their way: a woman's right to choose apparently being more of an evil than anything else the Church might ever encounter -- oh, except Teh Gays, of course.

Why, I ask again, does the Catholic Church retain tax exempt status in the United States, when they blatantly act as a PAC? And why, I wonder to myself, would anyone not a straight white male think that the Church has their best interests at heart?

(This is not a religious question, but purely a socio-political one; I know that faith makes people do the illogical. But it is a serious question.)

EtA: lots of discussion about side matters, but still no response to my question: why do non-straight-non-white non-males believe that the Church has their best interest at heart? I'm not asking the heathens and infidels among us, but those who consider themselves part of the Church. Anyone? Bueller? Go out and grab your friends and ask them, because I'm seriously interested.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/scIbcvCiszc/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=207293

• Caught 5min of "Martian Child" on HBO, and now I can't stop calling my cat "flomar." 15:08:28

Mirrored from davidmack.pro/blog.

Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.

• 00:29 @yislash Re: TARDIS hub - Indeed there is. Makes the materialization noise and everything :) #
• 00:31 @TrekGuy62 Re: Desk - Almost forgot: A paperweight that looks like a crate belonging to Indiana Jones, with goodies inside :) #
• 16:21 HaHAH! Thanks! RT @bookviewcafe @daytonward Congrats! You're a winner in BVC's Rocket Boy & the Geek Girls TwitterFic contest! #
• 17:34 Three bottles of the mead in the fridge. Decisions, decisions.... #

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